Tag Archive for Immune System

I’ve done Post’s before on the Immune System, and what we need to do to beef it up; but I get so many questions about it and hear so many incorrect comments about how we get sick ( or how our kids get sick), that I’m doing another one. Plenty of resources are included at the end of this.

Here’s the Fact: When you, or your child, or loved one, gets sick, it’s not because we’re a Victim of the Mean Sick Person who came to school/work/the pool/ etc with their germs. Germs are all around us, germs are normal and we’re LOADED with germs BY DESIGN. Science is leaving us with NO doubt that super clean environments actually debilitate our immune system instead of strengthen them.

WE GET SICK BECAUSE OUR IMMUNE SYSTEMS ARE WEAK. In laboratory studies to test drugs, people are purposely infected with bacteria and virus; some people get sick, AND SOME PEOPLE DON’T. They’re not magical people; their immune systems were strong enough to kill the pathogens. That’s all. That’s what our immune systems are supposed to do.

That’s why when a stomach bug goes around an office or a classroom, some people get it and some people don’t. Everyone was exposed, just not everyone was weak enough to be susceptible.

Our body houses hundreds of TRILLIONS of bacteria, on our skin, and though out the entire digestive tract, from the stomach to the rear. We’re all very, very different from each other in our bacterial composition, and that composition evolves throughout our life from our parents, our environment, the drugs we take ( not just antibiotics, but any and all OTC and prescription drugs affect the gut), and *******THE FOOD WE EAT******.

Our entire body is literally made, every day, from the food we put in our mouths. Crap In doesn’t just equal Crap Out.

( Parents, is it any wonder our kids get sick so often?? We have enormous influence over their actions: cut out the processed foods, don’t buy them!, pack them a healthy lunch, and get them to bed at an hour that allows the sleep they need.)

Our actions make us or break us; are you the type who gets sick regularly? Here’s what you can do:

The scientific literature is PACKED with decades of studies detailing specific compounds in all those foods with specific beneficial effects on all the various aspects of our immune system. Remember, the bulk ( 70-80%) of our immune system is housed in our gut: bacteria, the lymph system.., but there’s more. Our skin is a first line of defense, it’s acidic ( normal is 5.5) to kill pathogens that land on it, we need to support the health of our skin ( nutrients), and we need to keep all the bacteria that LIVE ON OUR SKIN – there’s about a TRILLION – healthy and functioning ( quit using AntiBacterial Soaps – they mutate the bugs, and if those mutated bugs get in us via a cut or an opening, we’re in trouble. )

Our stomach is supposed to be HIGHLY HIGHLY acidic, MORE ACIDIC THAN BATTERY ACID – HONEST. God made us that way: that acid is supposed to kill any pathogen that gets in our gut via our mouth. ( That acid also triggers many of the necessary digestive actions from the stomach to the anus.) Antacids, alcohol, birth control pills, sugar, grains, anti-inflammatories, all these either destroy the mucus lining of the stomach that makes the acid, or suppress the cells that make the acid. Either way, it’s bad news for us.

Support your gut function by avoiding the above list, and feed your gut the nutrients it needs to be FULLY acidic: apple cider vinegar, digestive bitters, fermented foods, assorted herbs and spices, and bone broth. There’s supplements that are amazing too, email me if you need help here.

We need to make T cells and B cells and Natural Killer Cells, they’re made from Nutrients; we need all our bacteria to be in CORRECT proportions,sugar and crap feed the WRONG bacteria. Did you know that we’re SUPPOSED to house E coli and Strep bacteria?? We are! Let them get out of whack/proliferate with your diet or lifestyle, and trouble begins.

With all the scary news about Ebola, and the Enterovirus, and even rampant Lyme disease, along with all the many normal illnesses that come along and interfere with our life, it’s absolutely essential that we take steps every day – all day to make ourselves as strong as possible instead of weaklings.

And all the over-the-counter remedies? They just suppress symptoms. THEY DON’T KILL BACTERIA OR VIRUSES EVER. Did you know that SYMPTOMS are actually our immune system trying to kill virus and bacteria?? A fever cooks pathogens; coughing and sneezing expels pathogens, as does the production of excess mucus. Taking OTC drugs that suppress symptoms can actually keep us SICKER LONGER, plus, they’re LOADED with side effects both short and long term.

Here’s some great resources on the immune system:

Me! Contact me for tricks/tips/ and assessments on how to become stronger. It’s a lifestyle.

Subscribe to the Natural Cures Summit this week, it’s totally free, and there’ll be over 30 presentations by doctors and scientists with the facts on how to naturally work with different medical conditions.

I’ve got a great reader question about Strep Throat, but I’m going to morph that into a Post on the Immune System. After all, that’s what it’s all about, right? Here’s the email:

I was hoping to find out more about which brand of probiotics I should be taking. I have a long history of frequent occurrences of strep throat and still get it frequently in adulthood. I have always been given antibiotics so I’m thinking I do not have even close to the amount of good gut bacteria that I should have. I have noticed over the years that when I get strep throat the symptoms have become more and more severe with higher fevers and a horribly sore throat. Do you think this could have anything to do with all the antibiotics I have put into my body?In addition to probiotics, are there certain foods that will increase good bacteria more than others? And for the next time I get strep, do you think its too late for me to try natural remedies after a lifetime of antibiotics?

Strep, and sore throats, used to be my Achilles Heel also. For everyone reading this, take out “strep” and put in whatever illness is your primary problem, because it’s not the Bug that’s our issue, it’s our immune system. It’s either weak or strong, and for the most part, we have a lot of control over that.

If you have a weak immune system, and start building it TODAY, in a year, you could be a completely different person. It’s never too late to build a strong immune system, but it does take consistent effort for the rest of your life.

The bacteria that cause strep, Streptococcus pyogenes, is actually a NORMAL bacteria for us. As a matter of fact, our skin and mucus tissues ALWAYS have bacteria on them, this strep bacteria being one of them. What happens is sometimes it, or other “Normal Flora”, overstep their bounds and become pathogenic. Why?

We compromise our immune system with chemicals and/or sugar. How?

The primary chemicals in ANTIBACTERIAL SOAPS, triclosan and triclocarbon (T&T), actually ******mutate all the bacteria they come into contact with, both the good and the bad. By the way, our skin is a PRIMARY line of Immune Defense; that means God made it literally teeming with BILLIONS of bacteria that work FOR US. Studies show that when these bacteria are exposed repeatedly to triclosan and triclocarbon, Genetic Mutations Happen. This is bad. I can’t even link to one study – there’s too many. Google it if you’re interested.

When good bacteria are mutated, they’re UNable to fight off bad bacteria.

Reason number 2 for a weak immune system: Sugar; it suppresses the immune system IMMEDIATELY, and for hours; and it’s Bad Bacteria’s FAVORITE food. ( Cancer cells also thrive on sugar.)

Scenario: You and your child wake up and have a glass of OJ, a bagel or bowl of cereal, and a banana. Boom: there’s now anywhere from 70 to 100 grams of sugar in you, or 17 to 25 Teaspoons of Glucose in the blood. White Blood Cell activity, the exact activity we need when the kid next to ours sneezes, or we push open the door loaded with bacteria at our office/store/gym, won’t be coming to the rescue. It’s suppressed from the sugar, and possibly mutated by antibacterial soap.

Reason number 3 for a weak immune system: Too much Bad Gut Flora and not enough Good Gut Flora. Our large intestine is supposed to contain about 100 TRILLION beneficial bacteria. It turns out that these bacteria have hundreds and hundreds of jobs, and one of the biggies is interacting with all our Fighter Cells, like T-Cells and B-Cells.

A single round of plain old antibiotics, for strep, may wipe out strains of beneficial bacteria that may never, ever come back.

Our Lymph System, which is heavily involved with our Immune system, runs through our large and small intestine, completely and literally intertwined. Our gut bacteria and our lymph system work together to create our Immune System.

It matters that we have Great Gut Function: good strong stomach acid, plenty of digestive enzymes, we poop every day, and that our food goes from one end to the other WITHOUT gas, bloat, indigestion, or reflux. Those conditions aren’t normal and indicate big problems with your gut.

What to do here: Evaluate: do you bloat/burp/reflux? You probably need to supplement with stomach acid (HCl) and/ or digestive enzymes. ( I use Biotics brands. Email me. ) Been on several courses of antibiotics? Focus on Probiotics and *******Fermented and Cultured foods******. Probiotics are great and often necessary, but even the expensive ones with billions of organisms don’t approach the numbers and strains in Real Whole FERMENTED Foods. (BTW, that link highlights an interview with Caroline Barringer, she was my main Instructor when I was in school at the Nutritional Therapy Association. ) Good brands of Probiotics: Biotics ( email me), Dr. Ohhiras, and Culturelle. There’s more, and it’s a good idea to rotate them. Apparently, our bacterial microbiome is literally as individual as our fingerprints, and it’s very varied.

Second evaluation: do you get sick often, colds, flu, sore throat? Correlate your weak immune system with the health of your gut. Fix your gut first, and strengthen your immune system with Real Whole Foods ( which also help fix your gut). If you have an over active immune system ( auto-immune conditions, like allergies), you probably have Leaky Gut. You’ll need to heal and seal the intestines; again, email me for a supplement list.

If you have an aversion to fermented foods, ( real saurkraut, keifer, kumbucha ), get over it. Buy some, and commit to eating a little bit every single day. Pretty soon, that tart taste goes from bad to good. Our taste buds do evolve, honest. Two of my favorite brands of cultured food are Wildbrine and Bubbies Pickles. If you buy any of the cultured beverages, make sure it has LITTLE TO NO ADDED SUGAR. Sugar feed bad bacteria. Add a little liquid stevia if it’s too tart, or add your own berries or fruit to thick keifer and blend them in. ( p.s. Cultured/fermented foods and drinks are ALWAYS in the refrigerator section.)

What else can we do to strengthen our Immune System in addition to cutting back on the sugar and upping cultured foods? Lots.

1) Eat garlic, onions, ginger, oregano; they all contain nutrients that make good bacteria thrive. Those same nutrients are also used by our entire gut lining to rebuild, repair, and reduce or eliminate inflammation. They also have STRONG anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.

2) Eat PLENTY of fiber; that’s what our gut bacteria eat to thrive, be strong, and do their work. Bacteria in our gut eat fiber and resistant starch, they don’t eat fatty acids or amino acids. After they eat, they produce ( think, “poop out”) by-products, like vitamins and fatty acids that are used through-out the entire body for different jobs. One by-product they produce is called Butyrate, and it’s a fatty acid that they eat themselves, and send to inflamed areas of your body. Butyrate has enormous Anti-Inflammatory action; research is showing it also has Anti-Cancer properties.

3) Butyrate is also found in Grass Fed Butter ( like Kerry Gold), and other FULL FAT dairy products from COWS THAT EAT GRASS. (remember, butyrate is a fatty acid) Butyrate is made in the cows gut by their gut bacteria from nutrients in GRASS, not grain. Read your labels and look for Grass Fed dairy. It’s getting easier and easier to find grass fed dairy products in the stores. If you’re interested in Raw, Grass Fed dairy from a farm, and you live in Virginia, search www.localharvest.com.
We belong to 2 great raw milk co-ops, and another raw cheese co-op. Look for a farm convenient to you.

Wrap Up: Sugar, grains, and chemicals ruin our body. Unnecessary / excessive antibiotics destroy our beneficial bacteria. For a strong immune system, and to repair damage from a weak immune system, live by the premise that every bite matters. Every thing we put in our mouth either makes us stronger or makes us weaker.

We don’t get sick because people around us spread their germs, we get sick because we’re not strong enough to fight those germs.

Strengthen your body every day. Eat Real Whole Food with plenty of good fats, clean proteins, TONS of vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy if you tolerate it. Pledge to have fermented or cultured foods several days a week. Take good supplements. Drink good water, move, rest, control your stress levels. And stay away from foods that make you sick, weak, and miserable.

I’ve got one more Post in me about the Low Carb Cruise, but it’s not info I learned from the doctors and speakers, it’s about the Norovirus, and this will apply to YOU, I promise.

Mark and I have gone on six cruises now, and we’ve both been asked, several times, “aren’t you afraid of getting sick?”, or, “have you ever gotten sick on a cruise?”. The answer: no. I used to worry about the Norovirus; how could I not after hearing news reports that hundreds of people on the same ship would get sick with it.

What is this odd virus that thrives in Cruise Ships? Would it get me? Our latest ship had “Purell Liquid Gel” stations everywhere, with crew members standing by them, encouraging everyone who walked by to use it.

We didn’t, not once. That stuff’s dangerous – seriously, and useless, as I’ll explain.

As a matter of fact, I haven’t used a commercial soap product in 3 years now, and that includes two Nascar races ( do you know how many people go to those things?), Verizon Center, 4H shows, the gym, airports, trains, etc.

Why? Me not getting sick has more to do with the strength of my IMMUNE SYSTEM, than any soap or alcohol-based hand gel. That’s 3 separate issues: Purell gel, anti-bacterial soaps, and the immune system. Read this, because this applies to our kids also.

One: studies on Purell’s effectiveness against the Norovirus actually show it’s IN-effectiveness against the Norovirus. Check out the research done at Emory University, School of Public Health, here. Obviously, Purell didn’t fund this study. The results: Purell doesn’t work very well against the Norovirus; soap and water were more effective.
What I found most interesting? 30% of everyone PURPOSELY INFECTED WITH THE NOROVIRUS – DIDN’T GET SICK. Now that caught my eye.

Two: studies on commercial anti-bacterial soaps that contain the agents “triclosan” and “triclocarbon” show some pretty damning evidence. An expert panel convened by the FDA determined that there’s “insufficient evidence” that anti-bacterial soaps actually offer any more protection than soaps minus the anti-bacterial agents.

Here’s the REAL bad news on anti-bacterial soaps: our skin is actually SUPPOSED TO BE TEEMING WITH BILLIONS OF BACTERIA. It’s a line of immune defense put there from God. Studies show that when these bacteria are exposed repeatedly to triclosan and triclocarbon, Genetic Mutations Happen. This is bad. I can’t even link to one study – there’s too many. Google it if you’re interested.

Want further reason to stay away from antibacterial soaps? Triclosan was introduced in 1969… as a Pesticide; and today it’s still registered as a pesticide, although aside from this and its uses in personal care products, it’s also widely used for industrial uses, for instance it is incorporated in conveyor belts, fire hoses, dye bath vats, or ice-making equipment as an antimicrobial pesticide. ( More reason to read the labels.)

We rub this stuff on our CHILDREN!!

Okay, point 3. Our Immune System. 30% of people PURPOSELY infected with Norovirus in the study DIDN’T GET SICK.

WHEN WE GET SICK IT’S NOT BECAUSE WE’RE DEFICIENT IN CHEMICALS OR PHARMACEUTICALS. EVER. We get sick when our immune system is weak and can’t fight pathogenic virus and bacteria.

What do Most people do on a Cruise? Drink EXCESSIVE alcohol, eat EXCESSIVE amounts of immune depressing foods(sugar and processed carbs), and stay up way too late. This is the PERFECT RECIPE FOR DEPRESSING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. Seriously, it’s perfect.